2 research outputs found
‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions
Graduate outcomes – including rates of employment and earnings – are marked by persistent
inequalities related to social class, as well as gender, ethnicity and institution. Despite national
policy agendas related to social mobility and ‘fair access to the professions’, high-status occupations
are disproportionately composed of those from socially privileged backgrounds, and evidence
suggests that in recent decades many professions have become less socially representative.
This article makes an original contribution to sociological studies of inequalities in graduate
transitions and elite reproduction through a distinct focus on the ‘pre-hiring’ practices of graduate
employers. It does this through a critical analysis of the graduate recruitment material of two
popular graduate employers. It shows how, despite espousing commitments to diversity and
inclusion, constructions of the ‘ideal’ graduate privilege individuals who can mobilise and embody
certain valued capitals. Using Bourdieusian concepts of ‘social magic’ and ‘institutional habitus’, the
article argues that more attention must be paid to how graduate employers’ practices constitute
tacit processes of social exclusion and thus militate against the achievement of more equitable
graduate outcomes and fair access to the ‘top jobs